Before the third episode of the Philippines Graphic Literary Workshop (PGLW) concluded on April 18, we knew that we had one more thing that we can offer our bright young fellows: a starting platform for their creative endeavors. Here, we present one of their final outputs from the workshop. We also asked them to provide an artwork that they think best represents their stories. Read on.

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The house was a mess. Clothes were everywhere. Every drawer, storage box and cupboard was open from the kitchen, the living room and every corner of the house. Even memory boxes from years ago weren’t safe from her rummaging. 

She sat on the floor in her glittery ballgown dress. Her eyes were brimming with tears.

It would’ve been comical if she wasn’t so distressed.

Oh, why couldn’t she find it? Her heart already had a sinking feeling to it as it beat vigorously in her chest at the thought of never seeing it again. An ache that won’t leave until she finds that ring.

She was in the middle of looking in between the pages of her books when she heard three careful deliberate knocks on the door.

“Addie?” Her heart skipped a beat when she heard that voice. “Can I come in?”

“Isobel!” She got up quickly, pushing her body towards the door.

“Why are you here?”

The voice from the other side replied. “Let me in, Addie.”

It was her sister. Addie’s expression hardened at the realization. “No.”

“Why not?”

“You know you can’t see me until later! It’s bad luck!” Addie replied, panicked.

“Your Ate said you needed me.”

Addie gasped, scandalized. “That snitch!” 

Isobel chuckled at this. “Let me in, Adelaide.” 

“No.” 

“It’s going to start in a couple of hours. We have to leave in a bit.”

“Not until I find it.”

Addie heard a soft thump on the door. “Please, Addie. Open the door.”

“Go away.” 

She heard a sigh and footsteps walking towards the stairs. And then it was silent.

Quietly, she grabbed the doorknob and opened it slowly. It made the low creaking sound that it always did and she dared to sneak a peek. 

The hallway was empty. 

The entire house stilled as if trapped in time.

She opened the door wider, trying to get a better look when a pair of hands suddenly grabbed her by the waist.  She squealed, instinctively hitting the person in the arm.

“Hey! Stop! It’s me! It’s me!” Isobel grabbed her hands, laughing. Instinctively, Addie’s hands went to Isobel’s shoulders for balance.

“You scared me!” 

Isobel continued to laugh, “I’m sorry. I had to get you to open the door somehow.” 

“I hate you.”

Her smile only grew bigger. “No you don’t,” She said softly. 

Isobel was looking at her weird.

“What?”

Carefully, Isobel brushed a hair away from Addie’s face. “You look beautiful, love.”

Her breath hitched, as she took in a moment to look at Isobel fully as well. She was wearing a fitted wedding dress of her own.

Oh. Addie gazed back into Isobel’s eyes, “You look amazing.”

“I know,” Isobel replied and even had the nerve to wink. 

Well, moment’s ruined.

“We’re not supposed to see each other.” She reminded her wife-to-be.

Isobel rolled her eyes. “You’re not even superstitious. Tell me what’s wrong.”

Addie’s shoulders sagged. Right. She walked back towards her laundry basket and pretended to be busy. The long train of her gown trailing behind her. Shame and guilt engulfed her stomach at the lost ring.

Isobel crouched down in front of her and took the shirt she was pretending to fold.

Their fingers grazed and it was like no time had even passed. Her heart still softened at the mere contact. She often wondered if Isobel’s heart still did the same after all these years.

She held Addie’s face in her hands. Instinctively, she leaned towards Isobel’s touch.

“Have you been crying?” Isobel whispered, wiping Addie’s face.

Addie sniffled, “No.”

This made Isobel smile. “Right,” Her usual soft and lazy grin that Addie had learned to memorise every curve of. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

Addie shrunk from where she sat. She whispered, “The ring’s missing.”

Isobel looked at her confused, her eyebrows meeting. “But you’re wearing your engagement ring. And the wedding rings are with the wedding planner.”

Addie couldn’t look Isobel in the eye. “Remember the paper clip ring you made me? I wanted to wear it for tomorrow.” Isobel gave it to her in the photobooth during their college foundation week. It was the day Isobel asked Addie to be hers. She couldn’t fathom going through the wedding without it.

“Of course I remember.” Isobel gently squeezed Addie’s hand three times. 

With one hand still on Addie’s head, Isobel pressed their foreheads together. “I’ll help you find it, okay?”

Well, how could Adelaide ever say no to that?

And so, they rummaged through everything in Addie’s room. As a sentimental person, she had kept almost everything from when she was a kid to now. They had their work cut out for them.

“Oh my God. Do you remember this?” Addie showed her the old polaroids of the two of them when they graduated high-school. They were just friends back then. Isobel had her arm around her waist as Addie pressed a kiss on Isobel’s cheek. 

Isobel took it in her hands as if it was a delicate relic. 

“Huh. So you did have a crush on me in highschool,” she mused.

Addie rolled her eyes.

Isobel in fact, did not know this until they were well into their college years. Looking back, she couldn’t help but think at how insufferably dense they both were.

They found concert tickets to their favorite OPM band in college. Their first official date as girlfriends. And as Isobel remembered: “You spilled piping hot coffee on me.”

“I said I was sorry about that!”

And just like that, it was like a highlight reel. They were reliving every moment again.  A story inside every trinket and every receipt saved.

The annotated copy of Dead Poet’s Society Isobel gave her on her 19th birthday. The pack of Marlboros they bought on 7/11 that one night when they were seventeen, bored and curious. They only smoked one cigarette each at the nearby lake beside Addie’s childhood home. They came to the conclusion that smoking wasn’t for them.

She was in the middle of going through old photo albums in her walk-in closet when she accidentally knocked open a pink shoe box while Isobel was going through the knick knacks under Addie’s bed. 

Old letters, sticky-notes, keychains and more developed photos spilled over the floor. 

Addie’s heartbeat picked up ever so slightly when under the stack of sticky notes and letters, something gleamed in the sunlight.  The ring.

“Isobel!” she couldn’t help but shout, picking it up with her fingers. “Bel! I found it,” she squealed in excitement. “I found it!”  She stood up excitedly and made her way towards the door. A grin stretched her face. 

The mess she made in the room greeted her when she opened the door. The bed they shared was empty. She was alone. The blankets were thrown over and pillows were on the ground. She found the polaroids on the bed. The annotated book, the lilies Isobel gave her, was pressed in between the pages. The box of Marlboro cigarettes, the concert tickets. The life they had lived together had seemed so grand and vast during every moment. 

Now it was all in front of her.

Her fingers played with the paperclip ring in her hand.

She caught her image on the nearby mirror. Without makeup, she looked as dead as she felt.  There were bags under her eyes almost as big as the hole in her beating heart.  

She straightened her shoulders back.

Meeting her own eyes in the mirror, she took a breath. She was as ready as she was ever going to be.

The choir sang at the same tune as Addie’s pulse, getting higher and higher by the minute.

The pink lilies in Addie’s hands are freshly picked, like it had known it would be a good day for such a celebration and bloomed just in time.

Around her, the crowd was quiet while a familiar tune sang. Her heart was still hammering out of her chest like an orchestra. She couldn’t wait to see Isobel. 

Their loved ones and family cried. One by one, they walked towards the altar. When it was finally Addie’s turn she took her time. Her heels hitting the stone pavement towards the church’s shrine. With each step, Addie could almost hear her beating heart in her ears.

She took a deep breath, trying to ground herself. She absentmindedly caressed the ring on her finger. She met Isobel in the altar, eyes glistening with tears. She was as beautiful as she had first seen her. 

“Hi,” Addie whispered.

“Hi. You ready?” Isobel asked, offering her hand.

With her gaze empty and her hands shaking, she took Isobel’s cold hands into her own. She knelt beneath the carpeted floor. The sun hit the stained glass windows just at the right moment, bathing the altar in color. It was almost beautiful. Isobel had always been so beautiful. Her eyes were closed now. Almost like she was just sleeping. 

Addie could feel her chest getting tighter and tighter, as if a hand was inside her rib cage and squeezing. She opened Isobel’s palms and placed the paperclip ring inside. Addie pressed a kiss on Isobel’s knuckles. 

“I brought it back for you,” she quietly whispered, her voice cracking in the process. “Something to remember me by.”

It was a futile attempt. One last hail mary from a woman in love. As the desperation and grief settled in her veins, she pressed her fingers on Isobel’s wrist and was met with silence. 

Addie’s heart was long gone.

Written by Precious Nicole Flores